China Announces New Office To Combat Money Laundering

An office devoted to combating money laundering and ensuring financial institutes comply with Anti-Money Laundering (AML) regulations is to be set up at the People Bank of China (PBOC). 

China’s central bank is creating a new office to protect national security and the financial ecosystem according to the latest guidelines. The operational officer of the PBOC disclosed the creation of the new office, revealing that the Beijing People’s Procuratorate is also a part of this endeavour to design an effectively communicated investigation framework. This system will bolster money laundering investigations and safeguard China from relevant financial crimes. The new office will assist the PBOC and the Beijing People’s Procuratorate in conducting effective investigations against financial crimes. Deputy head of the procuratorate’s fourth procuratorial division Ye Ping said, “It will also help prosecutors apply big data and financial information in their investigations, assisting them as they try to figure out clues.”

The collaboration of these two bodies enhances China’s national security and accelerates the investigation process. Under the guidelines, if they find the funds related to money laundering crime, the procuratorate can prompt the PBOC’s operation team for detailed scrutiny of the funds. For example, this guideline can come into action when the procuratorate is dealing with drug smuggling, bribery, and robbery cases, they must examine the funds involved in the crimes.

The said offices have previously worked together to fight financial crimes. In 2020, the memo was signed by four regulatory departments, including the Beijing High People’s Court and the Beijing Public Security Bureau, to enhance inter-departmental collaboration. These two bodies, along with nine other agencies, presented a three-year plan last year to prevent money laundering. 

On Tuesday, the prosecutor revealed that 74 individuals connected to 66 cases had faced laundering of funds accusations since 2020. Ye Ping added, “Some people were found to have concealed or disguised the sources of their bribes by gaining control of others’ bank accounts, while some were discovered to have used shell companies to transfer money to hide money made from fraud.” 

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